Category Manager Home Care

Who are we?

At Unilever, we share one simple purpose: To make sustainable living commonplace. Through our powerhouse brands such as Lipton, Dove, Axe and Magnum, we are creating a bright future for our business and our planet - and you can be part of it

We believe that companies with purpose last, people with purpose thrive and brands with purpose grow. We meet every day needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

We are the Belgian Digital Media Marketing and Commerce (DMC) team. We own the digital commerce channels and relationships. We help Unilever brands to become first to mind, first to find and first to cart in the online world. We want to be the preferred Digital Commerce partner externally and internally.

BUSINESS CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND

The purpose of this role is the development & execution of Channel & Category plans to deliver targets for the year. As linking pin between different roles (Marketing/Sales/Finance/Supply Chain) you lead and drive the CD / Channel agenda for Home Care in Belgium and cross company processes such as S&OP, IBP/IPM & NRM in collaboration with the Benelux CSP. While reporting into the Benelux CSP it is a role where ownership and independent decision making are crucial to drive the Belgium Home Care business.

EXPECTED WORK & KEY RESPONSIBILITIES.

Category Strategy and plans:
- Create and drive category strategies by collaborating, influencing and guiding all different internal partners (SC, Finance, Marketing) based on consumer/customer/category insights and trends.- Represent CD in Gatekeeping and constructing Innovation/RSV business cases (eg. Rotation, CPP, RSP)- You understand what competitors are doing well and translate external growth opportunities into relevant opportunities per brand/channel/customer- Drive the performance to reach localized BU targets in Belgium (USG/GM/VMS)

NRM- Full responsibility on development of NRM plans across all 5 levers together with relevant teams- Represent CD for lever 1&2 inputs towards marketing and lead Lever 3&4 (Customer Mix & Promo)- Lever 4 promotion: you are responsible to define the promo strategy for the different subcategories/segments and customers. Linked to the promo strategy, you are responsible to allocate and monitor budgets per subcategory, segment and channels/customers in closed relation with Sales Director.- Leading F4G projects among channel & customers (Repack, POS materials)

Customer Facing Category Strategy:
- Develop CFCS - translate and localize global category strategies to relevant category growth stories to become the preferred partner in the Home Care category at all retailers- Develop quarterly and monthly category plans for assortment, shelf-layout, promotional strategy and price positions, for customer/ channel focussing on shopper.- Develop 360 communication programs for channel / key customers (eg. Displays/Repacks).

S&OP- Delivering market trends (Channel, Category, Customers, Promo)- Drive business performance including gap closure activities- Monitor implementation customer marketing plan.- Close collaboration with KAM’s/Planning/Finance to deliver a strong bottom-up S&OP process.

IBP:
- Channel/Customer lens based thought leadership, feedback and inputs into the category building plan, brand JTBD, SKU portfolio for next year.- Input into innovation / renovation business cases e.g. pack size by channel (Ecommerce incl), pricing, distribution targets & trade margins.

Channel Strategies incl Ecommerce/ Omni-Channel to win in-store/ online- Drive a balanced channel strategy to win in tail-wind channels- Channel specific category plans incl. eCommerce to develop destination portfolios by channel and differentiation between channels on SKU level- Drive distribution and product availability across channels at the point of purchase.- Retail margins and customer profitability.

KEY SKILLS- Bachelor/Master level of education or equivalent via Unilever experience- Trilingual: Dutch/French/English- Strong analytical skills- Full P&L understanding- Strong customer mindset- Able to perform in independently in complex and stressful situations and against tight deadlines- Strong presentation & influencing/consulting skills- Result oriented and passionate for growth - strong focus on business outcomes, gap closure etc.- Leadership - in thought, being articulate and strategic.- Multi-tasking, making choices and prioritization across customers / channels / brands.- Stakeholder management & strategic influencing.- Operational rigor and decision making in ambiguous circumstances.- Understanding market/ customer needs and making decisions on initiatives.- Project management & Negotiation Skills.- Internal and external networking.

RELEVANT EXPERIENCES- Category Management/Customer Development/Sales experience- Strong understanding of Customer operations and channel drivers- Holistic business thinking exposure with clear ev